Monday, January 26, 2009

These are the days of miracle and wonder

1) Carbon nanotubes! Getting better all the time! Maybe, just maybe, could be used to build a space elevator and get me off this rock! (Thanks for the link, Gar)

1.1) My understanding is that even if atomically-perfect carbon nanotubes can be made in bulk quantities, an actual, honest-to-Yahweh space elevator is a dodgy bet. But these kinds of super-strong materials make something more modest, like this, go from "possible but ruinously expensive" to "possible but ridiculously expensive." The upside is that we could build something that would give us, say, 80% of what a space elevator would do -- but it might actually be possible.

2) The Internet leads to world peace, publication of once-despised-leaders in the pages of the New York Times. A shocking breach of America's usual policy of ignoring dissonant voices. (I don't endorse Qaddafi's argument, but find it extraordinary that he's even being published. [Thanks, Liam.])

Seriously, the one-state solution is a non-starter. Asking 5.4 million Israeli Jews to abandon the Zionist project that they've, um, pretty conclusively demonstrated their attachment to, would require (appropriately enough) divine intervention, even if it was an obviously-best solution, and I'm not sure it is.

3) This is just bizarre. No spoilers, except to say that I'm suddenly a lot less worried about the potential of Skynet or the Cylons.